Marriott Teams With Artists To Debut NFTs

Marriott Bonvoy, the travel program from the popular hotel chain, has worked with digital artists to make a set of NFTs, a press release says.

The digital artists in question are TXREK, JVY and Erick Nicolay. The art they made was intended to show “an interpretation of travel” and to illustrate how travel impacts the human spirit, the press release says.

The digital art was revealed Saturday (Dec 4) at the Art Basel Miami Beach 2021 event, the premiere event for modern art.

“We are excited to bring our extraordinary portfolio of hotel brands and endless experiences into this growing platform,” said Brian Povinelli, Senior Vice President, Brand, Loyalty, and Portfolio Marketing, Marriott International. “We continuously seek opportunities to defy what is conventional and, with our entry in the digital goods space, we are further igniting the transformative power of travel in the virtual world, while supporting this growing community of incredibly talented artists.”

In 2022, Marriott Bonvoy wants to work on building more of a presence in the metaverse as well – referring to the all-digital world in which users can interact with others in a totally virtual realm.

PYMNTS writes that NFTs have been becoming more popular, with various iterations from popular properties and brands. That includes Marvel superhero Spider-Man, which was the subject of an NFT from movie theater chain AMC, in preparation for the movie “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” coming out this month.

There were 86,000 commemorative images included with advance ticket purchases, which sold out, according to CEO Adam Aron.

Read more: Spider-Man May Be Turning 60, but AMC’s NFT Promo Proves He’s up to New Tricks

In terms of the metaverse, things have been developing quickly, with Mark Zuckerberg’s rebranding of Facebook to Meta on Oct. 28 and also his promises of advancing the metaverse.

Other companies like Nike have since pivoted to add metaverse-related plans.

And some have taken it even further than a virtual-reality world enabled by goggles, including Seth Gerson, CEO of Survios, an interactive content firm. He told Karen Webster that the “fully-realized” metaverse will involve tapping into ordinary glasses, or other more ordinary ways to help enhance the internet as well as peoples’ ways to access information.

See also: Utility Will Make the Metaverse Work — and Pay — With or Without Goggles